Forward - the communications tool for NHS health professionals

by Startacus Admin

Forward - the secure app for NHS clinicians to easily and instantly communicate with each other, share patient information, and prioritise tasks

The NHS always seems to be in the news, either as a victim of poor pay and unfair treatment of nurses or as the object of criticism. This service that the country relies on to help them when they are unwell isn’t doing particularly well in keeping up with modernity.

One way this presents itself to NHS staff is communications. In 2018, doctors and nurses are still using archaic communication systems like pagers and landlines and switchboards. This absurdly outdated, time-wasting system needs to change to save time and undue stress, and a group of London doctors have decided to do just that.

Staff can share images to ask for opinions and advice; find anyone in the hospital through the directory, rather than needing that person’s contact number beforehand for the likes of WhatsApp; and, vitally, they can see the importance of an instant message, rather than a simple pager notification, which comes with no measure of urgency.

Security is obviously hugely important, and the app is secure all of the way. From accessing it only with an NHS-approved email address and pin, to encryption of transmitted information, to secure cloud storage. Even within the app, users can only access information that either they themselves created or that has been specifically shared with them.

Earlier this year Forward raised $1.3m in seed funding, and the free app is already being used by 2000 clinical staff in the UK so far. Forward calculates that the app can save these staff up to an hour every day. Considering that this hour would otherwise be wasted running about answering pages and trying to get hold of other staff on landlines, etc., that’s a significant time-saving that could literally be a life-saver.

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